Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/59

Rh the soil. He brought to Oregon a slave woman and three of his five sons. He rarely purchased anything, living as much as possible on what the farm furnished. He planted a large orchard on a very rocky piece of land and got fine results from it by thickly covering the surface with crops of straw produced on the level land which was chosen more for keeping stock through the winter without feed, than for grain. His custom was to begin with so many breeding animals and keeping them, increase up to the line of overstocking, sell for cash, reserving a certain number to start again, hide his money and keep on towards another sale. He did little labor himself, leaving that for the slave woman and his sons, who were all industrious and some of them very worthy citizens. Mr. Delaney's exercise was to go with his hounds and rifle wherever, in the near vicinity, beasts of prey might lurk, and depend on his dogs to bring them within range of his rifle. He must, in this way, have destroyed very many panther, lynx, and wild cats, as well as some bears, and so was a benefactor to his neighbors. He seemed to read his bible chiefly to find in it support for his dominion over the soul and body of his female slave. His sales and expenditures having been watched by a neighbor and professed friend for over a period of twenty years he was murdered for his treasures. Such was the end of a pioneer of 1843, whose life action in nearly every respect was the very opposite to that of Peter H. Burnett, who wielded the largest influence as leader of immigrants of 1843-44, and was the most complete representative of the motive of the enterprise of Americanization of Oregon and California, of which latter State he was the first elective Governor.

It should not be understood leadership is claimed for Mr. Burnett over all his brother pioneers in every respect. Some (I think a large number) would have fought for dominion after arriving here more readily than either he or Jesse Applegate, his able co-laborer, in getting the leading men in charge of the Hudson Bay Company's property to place it and themselves under the protection of the Provisional American Government.